Dr. John Paul SanGiovanni directs the Center for the Study of Nutrient-Responsive Systems and leads the Food and Nutrition Branch of the National Science Foundation Industry-University Center for Collaborative Research, Center for Streaming Healthcare in Place (C2SHiP). He joined the University of Arizona BIO5 Institute in the fall of 2019 after nearly twenty years as a scientist at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. SanGiovanni trained as a scholar and researcher in neuroscience, visual psychophysics, nutritional biochemistry, biostatistics, and epidemiologic research design at Harvard University. He was the scientific director (Scientific Project Officer) and responsible party for NIH projects funded at > $50M (the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) and the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2)). Dr. SanGiovanni earned his master and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. Profiles may be found on NeuroTree, LinkedIn and Google Scholar.
Dr. SanGiovanni’s teams work to advance knowledge on individual differences in nutrient sensing, transport, metabolism and nutrient-related signaling processes as a means to inform rational planning of effective interventions aimed at the enhancement of human health, extension of life and reduction of illness and disability.
At NIH, Dr. SanGiovanni acted as a central leader of teams advancing knowledge on the role of conditionally essential tissue-resident nutrients in health and disease of the retina and brain. His achievements span multi-center clinical trials that led to standard-of-care treatments for age-related degeneration (JAMA, 2013) to the first successful genome-wide association study on complex disease (Science, 2006) to mechanistic in vivo model-based studies elucidating actions of diet-based fatty acids in the retina (Nature Medicine, 2007). He received NIH Director’s Award from Dr. Elias Zerhouni in 2008 and Dr. Francis Collins in 2011 for his key contributions in developing the first resource in the NIH Database on Genotype and Phenotype (dbGaP) – in 2010 he was awarded the Norman Salem Jr. Early Career Award from the International Society on the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids. Dr. SanGiovanni has published in Science (cover feature), Nature Medicine (cover feature), Science Translational Medicine, JAMA, PNAS, J. Neurosci., Pediatrics, FASEB Journal, Circulation, Oncotarget, and American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. His works have been cited over 20,000 times. He has received > 1000 citations per year over the past decade, has six works with over 700 citations, four works with over 1000 citations, two works with over 2500 citations and one work with over 4500.
Dr. SanGiovanni’s research program has four dominant themes developed to yield necessary information for rational planning of research and interventions in personalized nutrition. First, he is using integrative omics technologies to: 1) characterize and catalog structural chemistry and molecular dynamics of nutrient-responsive human systems (receptors, transporters, enzymes and hormones); and, 2) determine functional implications of structural variation in elements of these systems. He also uses physiological optics techniques to examine in vivo human response to nutrient intake (with a focus on tissue status change and retinal | visual function). A third focus is application of human microphysiological systems in iPSC-derived retinal tissue to examine the influence of nutrients on cell survival|rescue in the context of genomic variation and complexity. Finally, he is applying a ‘One Health’ paradigm (integrative convergence science-based approach) to understand modifiable aspects of soil and plant microbiology for optimizing plant and human physiology in the context of climate variation challenges and natural resources sustainability efforts.
- 2022 – Present NSF IUCRC (C2SHiP) Director of Food & Nutrition Programs
- 2019 – Present BIO5 and NSC Faculty — University of Arizona
- 2000 – 2019 Scientist, NIH
- 1999 Sc.D. – Harvard University
- 1994 M.A. – Harvard University
- 1993 M.S. – Brandeis University
- 1988 –1993 – Training, Harvard Med. School
- 1988 A.B. – Boston College